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The Masque of Africa: Glimpses of African Belief (Paperback)

Description

A remarkable work of reportage by NobelPrize Laureate V. S. Naipaulthat surveys belief andreligion amongthe disparate peoples of Africa. Like all of Naipaul's travel books, The Masque of Africa encompasses a much larger narrative and purpose: to judge the effects of belief (in indigenous animisms, the foreign religions of Christianity and Islam, the cults of leaders and mythical history) upon the progress of civilization. It is a masterly achievement by one of the world's keenest observers and one of its greatest writers.

About the Author

V. S. Naipaul was born in Trinidad in 1932. He went to England on a scholarship in 1950. After four years at University College, Oxford, he began to write, and since then has followed no other profession. He has published thirty books of fiction and nonfiction, including A House for Mr. Biswas, A Bend in the River, A Turn in the South and a collection of letters, Between Father and Son. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2001.

Praise For…

“Beautiful and humane. . . . The idea that underpins it is so basic that it achieves a kind of majesty.”—Harper’s Magazine

“Neither a romantic’s nor an anthropologist’s tale. It is a collection of voices that make sense only in relation to one another. . . . What’s important is what’s being said. . . . [Naipaul’s is a] brilliant and elastic mind.”—The New York Times Book Review

“With extraordinary sensitivity, Naipaul registers the beauty of [African] traditions but also captures their cruelty.”—Bookforum

“One of Naipaul’s most stirring books. . . . [He] combines the objectivity of a disaster photographer and an understanding of history.”—The Independent (London)